• WhatASave@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    0
    ·
    1 year ago

    Save me some time, is Wim Hof full of it? I was mildly skeptical but open to it. We obviously don’t know all there is to know about the human body and mind. But then I saw that everything was behind paywalls and speeches I became more skeptical but I’m still interested.

    • koolkiwi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Very much not full of it. The author ends up being completely convinced and even climbs a mountain with Wim Hof while wearing nothing but short pants.

    • WhiteTiger@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      Depends on your definition of ‘full of it’.

      Wim Hof does pretty much everything he claims to do. His ‘method’ however is pretty much nonsense. It doesn’t take a genius to say ‘hey if you get used to being in the cold you’ll feel less cold when you’re in the cold’. It’s unclear how much of it is a blatant cash grab and how much he actually believes, however.

      It is (technically) possible to learn to trick your body into fight-or-flight mode, releasing adrenaline which will cause your body to heat up. You can even learn to do this for extended periods of time, as at least one group of Tibetan monks practice. But unless you’re a monk, you’re highly unlikely to ever achieve anything other than life-threatening tachycardia.

      As you may imagine, it’s quite difficult to achieve and even if you do so, it’s not great for your long-term heart health to constantly trick your body to release adrenaline for extended periods. It’s even worse for the brain.